Chip Shot: Oy vey! Get to the fan base ratings already?
December 23, 2020 at 5:21 p.m.
Chip Shot: Oy vey! Get to the fan base ratings already?
By Chip Davenport-
Get to the fan base ratings already?
I hope each of you had a Merry Christmas yesterday, or you’re happily celebrating Kwanza today. I feel like I neglected my friends who are “members of the Tribe” in columns past because I completely missed the chance to wish them a Happy Channukah in the two previous columns the festival of lights spanned!
A shanda on me for two reasons: one for forgetting members of the Tribe their holiday wishes, and two for feeling self-important enough to think my friends in the Tribe among Columbus (Ohio), Cleveland, and Toronto would be reading my column.
“What’s a Shanda?” you ask. It’s Yiddish for a shame, or a person of shame simply put.
My abrupt hairpin in stream of consciousness now leads me to this week’s thoughts.
The restricted crowds at high school sporting events are triggering many thoughts in my mind. I’ll put the (obviously) significant reduction in home attendance aside, though, and focus on the attendance among visiting opponents.
The current visiting crowd sizes made me realize there weren’t many “away” fans making the schlep to Warsaw Tiger home games for football and basketball during the latter half of the last ten years.
Schlep? Could this turn into a legal-aged adult drinking game already? Drew, have I kept you and our lawyers from getting nervous with the “legal-aged adult” qualification?
Focus, Chip, focus!
Visitor attendance is so paltry among recent years I can laundry list no greater than a handful of fan bases, some sport specific, I would expect to travel well with their programs in normal conditions.
Here are my top three visiting pre-pandemic fan bases. You read that correctly, just three! Stay tuned for honorable mentions, though.
Westview basketball fans. Not only do they bring numbers from a school less than one-fourth the size of Warsaw’s, but these fans know their basketball stuff. They make noise in our house, but they don’t waste their breath heckling the officials.
If this year’s week 5 football clash with Mishawaka were not pandemic-restricted, fans would have been leaning against the perimeter fences at Fisher Field. Cavemen fans travel well, and the reason they joined our conference this school year is some of our fan bases travel better than their foes of old did. Gate revenue is the life blood of athletics.
Sorry to say, Warsaw Cheer Block, I challenge your student section to retake its lead lost to Northwood’s basketball student section after Warsaw’s Crispy Crew donned their caps and gowns mid-decade. The Panther student section remains the NLC’s best by nailing its themes and maintaining full game energy!
The following are my honorable mentions:
Valley (basketball), whose annual preppy theme complements Warsaw’s country theme every year without getting old. It’s both sections’ finest hour. There’s more to it than the duds, folks, and it’s fun to watch the fans make their respective statements. Parents between both schools have cultivated generational friendships making an interesting game night atmosphere.
Carroll’s Neon Nation, a formidable sixth man (basketball)/twelfth man (football) at home, they can also make themselves feel very much at home in your house.
Instead of a shout out to one more fan base, I shall abruptly shift to a shanda upon Concord home football fans!
Picture a full home football stand on a mild October 2019 evening. The Minutemen could (and they did) clinch the conference title with a win over Warsaw (and a Plymouth loss), and half of them left after the band finished its halftime show! My sister, a 35-year Elkhart resident was in attendance to watch my boy battle the hosts on the gridiron. She told me, as I witnessed the exodus, it wasn’t because of the halftime lead, it’s what Concord band parents and fans do, and she nudged me knowingly.
You see, folks, my fellow Cloverleaf alumni would take righteous indignation toward Concord’s second half disappearing act! We collectively feel Cloverleaf invented that schtick for all the proper reasons! Our football team struggled to a 2-27-1 win-loss-tie record from grades ten to twelve. We could feel the crowd thinning behind our cold backs as we played on following the completion of our massive, talented marching band’s halftime show. That band was also portrayed in comic strip syndication among several Funky Winkerbean comic strips (fun fact). The band kids… were the cool kids.
All I want for Christmas in 2021 is sufficient health conditions for full capacity crowds at ballgames, and a return to the visiting crowd sizes of old. Perhaps the restrictions of this year will make fans want for action in numbers not seen in a long time instead of turning them further away toward Netflix, clique parties, and nights out away from the stadiums and gyms.
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Get to the fan base ratings already?
I hope each of you had a Merry Christmas yesterday, or you’re happily celebrating Kwanza today. I feel like I neglected my friends who are “members of the Tribe” in columns past because I completely missed the chance to wish them a Happy Channukah in the two previous columns the festival of lights spanned!
A shanda on me for two reasons: one for forgetting members of the Tribe their holiday wishes, and two for feeling self-important enough to think my friends in the Tribe among Columbus (Ohio), Cleveland, and Toronto would be reading my column.
“What’s a Shanda?” you ask. It’s Yiddish for a shame, or a person of shame simply put.
My abrupt hairpin in stream of consciousness now leads me to this week’s thoughts.
The restricted crowds at high school sporting events are triggering many thoughts in my mind. I’ll put the (obviously) significant reduction in home attendance aside, though, and focus on the attendance among visiting opponents.
The current visiting crowd sizes made me realize there weren’t many “away” fans making the schlep to Warsaw Tiger home games for football and basketball during the latter half of the last ten years.
Schlep? Could this turn into a legal-aged adult drinking game already? Drew, have I kept you and our lawyers from getting nervous with the “legal-aged adult” qualification?
Focus, Chip, focus!
Visitor attendance is so paltry among recent years I can laundry list no greater than a handful of fan bases, some sport specific, I would expect to travel well with their programs in normal conditions.
Here are my top three visiting pre-pandemic fan bases. You read that correctly, just three! Stay tuned for honorable mentions, though.
Westview basketball fans. Not only do they bring numbers from a school less than one-fourth the size of Warsaw’s, but these fans know their basketball stuff. They make noise in our house, but they don’t waste their breath heckling the officials.
If this year’s week 5 football clash with Mishawaka were not pandemic-restricted, fans would have been leaning against the perimeter fences at Fisher Field. Cavemen fans travel well, and the reason they joined our conference this school year is some of our fan bases travel better than their foes of old did. Gate revenue is the life blood of athletics.
Sorry to say, Warsaw Cheer Block, I challenge your student section to retake its lead lost to Northwood’s basketball student section after Warsaw’s Crispy Crew donned their caps and gowns mid-decade. The Panther student section remains the NLC’s best by nailing its themes and maintaining full game energy!
The following are my honorable mentions:
Valley (basketball), whose annual preppy theme complements Warsaw’s country theme every year without getting old. It’s both sections’ finest hour. There’s more to it than the duds, folks, and it’s fun to watch the fans make their respective statements. Parents between both schools have cultivated generational friendships making an interesting game night atmosphere.
Carroll’s Neon Nation, a formidable sixth man (basketball)/twelfth man (football) at home, they can also make themselves feel very much at home in your house.
Instead of a shout out to one more fan base, I shall abruptly shift to a shanda upon Concord home football fans!
Picture a full home football stand on a mild October 2019 evening. The Minutemen could (and they did) clinch the conference title with a win over Warsaw (and a Plymouth loss), and half of them left after the band finished its halftime show! My sister, a 35-year Elkhart resident was in attendance to watch my boy battle the hosts on the gridiron. She told me, as I witnessed the exodus, it wasn’t because of the halftime lead, it’s what Concord band parents and fans do, and she nudged me knowingly.
You see, folks, my fellow Cloverleaf alumni would take righteous indignation toward Concord’s second half disappearing act! We collectively feel Cloverleaf invented that schtick for all the proper reasons! Our football team struggled to a 2-27-1 win-loss-tie record from grades ten to twelve. We could feel the crowd thinning behind our cold backs as we played on following the completion of our massive, talented marching band’s halftime show. That band was also portrayed in comic strip syndication among several Funky Winkerbean comic strips (fun fact). The band kids… were the cool kids.
All I want for Christmas in 2021 is sufficient health conditions for full capacity crowds at ballgames, and a return to the visiting crowd sizes of old. Perhaps the restrictions of this year will make fans want for action in numbers not seen in a long time instead of turning them further away toward Netflix, clique parties, and nights out away from the stadiums and gyms.
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